Meant to be moving to Dubai in 4 weeks

[Medesres]

We've been planning a move to Dubai for a while now. Dh's work has an office out there and it seemed like great opportunity to live abroad and experience sth different. I've got a couple of friends out there already too who love the lifestyle.

Watching the news for the past 24 hours and I'm really starting to question things. I had no idea how close to Iran it was and who knows what might happen next. Part of me is hoping it will all be resolved soon but hard to believe.

My friend who already lives there has spent the night sleeping in one room with her dh and kids scared of all the missile noises.

Wow @Jerys I really am glad I don’t know you. And I don’t say that lightly. I cannot believe you compared my lovely, passionate, smart, gay DD to a paedophile. Wtaf?

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Aunt Lydia points out the difference between “freedom to” and “freedom from”.

Conservative religions often trumpet the “safety” enjoyed by the women in their communities who have little autonomy but face few threats (outside the home, that is, whereas at home their menfolk are their masters). Being protected, as a woman, by ideals of “modesty” and by strict, sex-segregated behavioural codes rather than being free to take my own risks and live as fully as I can is not for me. I want to fly a plane and take lovers and wear leather trousers!

And as we move further Right and ever more towards authoritarianism I hope a lot of women start to think about the real cost of sacrificing our hard-won “freedom to” for the gilded cage of “freedom from”.

Well expressed.

Yes I can believe you don’t …..

Wildlife is better killed for a high rise hotel, according to
shallow people.

I’m seeing a new benefit to Dubai - people
who think like Jerys can live there with others who agree with them.

You had no idea how close to Iran it is?
Wow.

And the rest of the middle east. Super fast, super efficient. Big project is there, going to benefit the economy. They just build it.

@kotordreams All fur coat and no knickers.

The knickers in this scenario being a metaphor for personal and wider morality.

YABU to not know the geographical location of a country you are moving to, and to be ignorant of the fact that Iran is just across the Persian gulf.

My friend escaped Iran through the mountains on foot after her father was killed by the regime, whilst the Iranian leadership is in place nothing in the region is guaranteed plus you really need to do your homework before relocating anywhere, even to places you think you know eg an English family relocating to Scotland where the school system and house buying system is different.

This!

we were also offered to move there as a family, happy to pay Rachel’s 40% tax than put my kids through it.

loads of high earning Brit’s have been seduced by the pay and nil tax though!

And sod the habitat!

Hows the missile ridden sky doing for the economy?

What a load of nonsense.

Really good post. Well said.

@Jerys

Why do you think they ‘just build it’ and do so ‘super fast’? What do you think has had to happen to enable this way of working?

(Hint: https://www.humanrightsresearch.org/post/modern-day-slavery-in-the-united-arab-emirates )

It’s widely agreed that the English planning system isn’t perfect and there is a lot of room for improvement but its heart is fundamental: development should benefit the community rather than just private landowners. But I’m leaving it here because I fear all of this chat will just fall on deaf ears.

I'm not mocking the OP or anyone but I do think that if you are white, straight, a man, have money, have a relatively comfortable existence or just not tuned in politically (in which case, this could be anyone) then the world probably doesn't seem as threatening a place to you.

Again, this not a criticism but some people are hyper aware of places in the world because they just have to be .

I couldn't confidently tell you where North Korea was on a map, but I'm sure as shit know I'm never going there because of what I know about the place.

Precisely. MN has been littered with “high earners will emigrate to Dubai” threats the last few months.

Will they. That looks like it would work really well.

I’ll just carry on paying tax and not living next door to Iran, thank you.

This must be so hard for you op @Medesres. What is your current situation? Have you given notice on your home/job, packed up ready to move?

Is Dubai next to Iran? Surely not! They’ve never advertised that!

I don’t think it’s on the fancy marketing materials.

Teeth, tans and servants - but not the fact it’s in the Middle East. Weird!

I wonder how the GCC manages with no personal income taxes. They have very strong functional economies.

As a family we pay the additional rate and hate seeing our hard earned money squandered on benefits. We might move to gulf and hopefully have the opportunity to keep our income. It probably won't be Dubai (even though our family there love it there), but we are seriously considering a move.

Well I hope your you, DC and GC need benefits, that others won’t squander their money on!

Maybe an illness, accident which means you can’t work?

I mean benefits for people are such a bloody waste, aren’t they?

Please don’t delay in moving.

But do buy yourself a world map, so you know where you’re actually moving to!

@Sparklingwaterornothing ha, not just Rachel’s 40% though - was the Tory’s too - thing is and I posted this awhile back, it may be tax free, but blimey it was way more expensive when we went than I expected, so you would need all that tax free money if you didn’t fancy just working and sitting in too - it was also the most sober holiday I’ve ever had, wine was humongously expensive ( and mainly crap too) - I think we were curious at the time (2011) but it wasn’t for me and my H actually loathed it - accommodation was fabulous I admit - but that was about it for me . I think it’s really horses for courses though - I do know some love it - for me it was a bit all fur coat and no knickers and not actually very interesting.

There's so much madness contained in this one thread 😳 🤣 🤦🏾‍♀️.

Focusing on the OP though... You're probably safest at home. Your lack of awareness or inquisitiveness is not best suited to moving to the ME.

Quite so. All those people moving there as the uk ‘doesn’t feel safe’. Eye roll. But why anyone would want to live in such a vacuous country I’ve no idea